The reason I started this blog was seeing my friends, neighbors and relatives suffer without affordable, comprehensive health insurance -- but there's another reason, I think, that it seems like such a serious responsibility to me that we all cooperate to provide that insurance.
I experienced an incident in China about five years ago that has made the fight for a public option, and for real, affordable health care for all Americans seem critical, immediate, and crucial. China is controlled by its communist government, but their health care system is considerably more influenced by the free market even than ours in the United States, and (partially due to limited resources) they don't have guarantees we have such as the emergency room mandate, guaranteed basic health care for seniors, or care for the poor.
My partner and I were traveling in Dandong in northeast China, and were coming back to our hotel one night when we saw a couple on a motorcycle run over an older man on a bicycle who was making a left turn. It was dark, but not late, and there were about fifteen or so people on the street. She ran over to see if he was okay; I started trying to get passers-by or people working in shops to call an ambulance; the couple on the moped, who had been knocked off it, got up and fled.
I couldn't get anyone to place the call, or even to lend me their phone so that I could make the call in my half-broken Chinese. Who will pay for it, they said? We'll be responsible if we call an ambulance. They'll trace my phone. I can't call from my business, because they'll fire me for putting them at risk.
I was essentially having a health insurance policy debate. They can't make you pay, I said, they'll pay. Who is they, they said. Everybody pays, I said. The city keeps the hospital open. The city will pay. The city won't pay.
Sadly, they were right and I was wrong -- there was no system in place to help this man, and no community support to help those watching him do the right thing.
What I didn't have to do -- what too few of us who are having this debate ever do -- is what my partner did: stay with the man lying there waiting in the street, his bike twisted underneath him, ribbons of his face hanging from his jaw, trying to breathe through the blood.
Waiting for his neighbors to make the call. Waiting for me. Running out of time to wait while we figured out who is responsible and what we should do.
It was one incident in an enormous city in an enormous country -- only fifteen people saw it start to finish -- but if you did see it, if you had stood there, helpless, waiting for nothing, it would be as clear to you as it is to me. The health of our brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers and children is our responsibility. When a man dies who could have lived, it diminishes us all. We can shirk our responsibility -- can get up in Congress and say that we don't have the money or we don't like the government -- but we can't escape it. 44,000 Americans will die this year because they lack health insurance. You and I may not have seen it happen, but it is happening, and until we take responsibility for ourselves, our communities, and our nation, it will continue to happen.
We're the people on the roadside: we look away from the suffering around us, because we feel helpless to do anything about it. But we're not helpless. Public option legislation is our best chance to provide real protections and real care to people at affordable prices. We are so close -- today, with just a few Senate votes between us and the change that we need -- we have come so far from the days when disinformation (death panels! socialism!) and apathy dominated the debate. We can keep up the pressure -- increase it -- and we can have a strong, national public option. But it will not be given to us; we have got to take it.
The injured, the sick, and the suffering wait for you and for me; they've waited for years. What are you going to do? Who is responsible?
Showing posts with label insurance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label insurance. Show all posts
Friday, October 9, 2009
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Yeouch
Thought I'd be working today, but had to share this. I've seen more than a few insurance industry employees supporting their industries in the debate over the public option. That's their prerogative, but this news kind of indicates that they shouldn't necessarily picture themselves as members of a big corporate 'family'.
In the memo from Randy Brown, WellPoint's chief human resources officer, the company said it would lower its contribution toward worker premiums and raise deductibles in two of its three benefit plans. "Your cost per paycheck will probably increase," the memo said.Hard times for everyone, but I have to point out -- if you make pens, you usually get some free pens. If you're a cook, free soup. I get free database access. My partner gets free textbooks. Shouldn't insurance employees have, you know, particularly good insurance? Or maybe the legal fees, top-level salaries, and lobbying expenditures (they made the exceptional step this year of phoning 3 million of their own customers with a push-poll robocall opposing reform) are getting a little bit too expensive for Wellpoint to cover?
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Doctors and the Public Option
A short post today because I'm going to spend some time trying to get campus newspapers interested in all things GradMed.
As the public option, at least in the opinion of the Times and some other media outlets, fades from view in the Senate negotiations, it's becoming clear just how many people really support it: the New England Journal of Medicine released a study whose results you can read about here. Some highlights:
-- Among doctors, combined support for a public option and a single payer system (which would be a Canadian-style system where the government has an even larger role in health insurance, and whose proponents would likely support a public option if forced to) is at 73%.
-- This proportion holds steady among rural doctors, urban doctors, specialists, general practitioners, etc. -- it's not that one group of doctors intensely supports the public option and others don't, it's that a majority of all doctors support the public option (the ways in which the public option would benefit rural America deserves its own post).
-- Even American Medical Association members -- and this is a large lobbying group that has, after signaling support, come out in opposition to the public option -- even their member base is in support of a public option.
Count this, perhaps, as another kind of sign that the more people know about the public option, the more likely they are to support it. Doctors are particularly well-versed in our current insurance system, have a good idea of the nation's health needs, and have been following the facts of the national debate -- accordingly, they're even more in favor of the public option than the average American.
As the public option, at least in the opinion of the Times and some other media outlets, fades from view in the Senate negotiations, it's becoming clear just how many people really support it: the New England Journal of Medicine released a study whose results you can read about here. Some highlights:
-- Among doctors, combined support for a public option and a single payer system (which would be a Canadian-style system where the government has an even larger role in health insurance, and whose proponents would likely support a public option if forced to) is at 73%.
-- This proportion holds steady among rural doctors, urban doctors, specialists, general practitioners, etc. -- it's not that one group of doctors intensely supports the public option and others don't, it's that a majority of all doctors support the public option (the ways in which the public option would benefit rural America deserves its own post).
-- Even American Medical Association members -- and this is a large lobbying group that has, after signaling support, come out in opposition to the public option -- even their member base is in support of a public option.
Count this, perhaps, as another kind of sign that the more people know about the public option, the more likely they are to support it. Doctors are particularly well-versed in our current insurance system, have a good idea of the nation's health needs, and have been following the facts of the national debate -- accordingly, they're even more in favor of the public option than the average American.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
The Invisible Hand
Some of the resistance to a national public health option that I've seen goes like this: free competition naturally makes services cheaper and more effective, and government interference ends incentives to excel (because nobody has to compete to succeed -- they just line up for free government money). This, I think, is true for transistor radios, furniture, cars, etc. But what about health care?
Unmoderated, unrestrained free-market competition is the last thing we want for health care. Can you imagine what would happen if one corporation gained a majority share in all the nation's hospitals? What would it be like if there was only one company (something like Microsoft in its heyday) that you had to deal with every time you needed an MRI or an X-ray? Compared to furniture, medical treatment is not a luxury -- when one of your feet goes numb and stays that way, it's likely that you'll pay whatever you have to.
We allow this kind of competition -- i.e. we allow insurance companies to grow until they have an unacceptable level of power over us and our lives -- right now. The AMA released an analysis (here) that says that two insurance companies -- WellPoint and United -- control 36% of the national market for health insurance. With mergers taking place faster than ever before, this amount could easily increase.
That's the national scene, though -- it gets worse in the cities. 16% of American metropolitan areas are dominated by an insurance company with a market share over 90% -- so if you want to get insurance in Texarkana, TX, or Battle Creek, MI you can pretty much only deal with Blue Cross/ Blue Shield. And if they don't want you? Tough!
Republicans and Democrats alike love to talk about the free market and free competition as if it is a basic American belief. It's not. Our innovations and our competition -- from cars to computers -- are built on a system of government-maintained roads and railways, protected by a government-run military, and managed by laws that we all agree upon. For some parts of our economy, this is the best choice -- to have government intervention. Health care is one of those parts!
But the insurance companies, greedy as all hell, hang outside our window -- don't you want free trade, they say? Don't you believe in the invisible hand?
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
How do you get your insurance?
How do Americans get their health insurance? Mine comes from my school -- but I'm going to graduate soon, and many of the entry-level jobs in my field (education) don't offer health benefits. This thread at Cynical-C has people sharing their situations and, most often, their resentments:
What are your insurance stories?
I had no idea that there were circumstances under which an employee wasn't eligible for COBRA, but Tom Woolf writes in:
"The company I worked for was the subject of a hostile takeover (”hostile” in this case making the Hatfields and McCoys seem like a petty disagreement). In the end, I kept my job, but it was very very iffy for a while. Because of that, I got my own health insurance. Folks who did not make the transition did not have Cobra as an option, and the original entity ended up going under, with all the assets being purchased by the takeover company."
The best way to get health insurance seems to be through Canadian citizenship -- I'm getting a little bit sick of the surprise and pity of Canadians that learn how bad the system in the US really is. They're particularly smug in these Metafilter comments:
Canadians pity USians!
Our system is perfect in one respect -- perfect for health insurance companies, who insure the well-employed, the healthy and the young, and leave the unemployed, the sick, and the elderly to be paid for by the government.
What are your insurance stories?
I had no idea that there were circumstances under which an employee wasn't eligible for COBRA, but Tom Woolf writes in:
"The company I worked for was the subject of a hostile takeover (”hostile” in this case making the Hatfields and McCoys seem like a petty disagreement). In the end, I kept my job, but it was very very iffy for a while. Because of that, I got my own health insurance. Folks who did not make the transition did not have Cobra as an option, and the original entity ended up going under, with all the assets being purchased by the takeover company."
The best way to get health insurance seems to be through Canadian citizenship -- I'm getting a little bit sick of the surprise and pity of Canadians that learn how bad the system in the US really is. They're particularly smug in these Metafilter comments:
Canadians pity USians!
Our system is perfect in one respect -- perfect for health insurance companies, who insure the well-employed, the healthy and the young, and leave the unemployed, the sick, and the elderly to be paid for by the government.
Basic Principles
Hi, everyone.
My name is Nick, and I've been reading about health care reform pretty intensely over the last couple of months. I care about it because many of my friends have been uninsured for periods ranging from weeks to years. For reasons that will hopefully become very clear, I believe America and Americans need a public option for health care, and I don't intend to be particularly considerate of opposing views. In situations concerning abortion, drug arrests, euthanasia, welfare, or HUD, liberals and conservatives have real and reasonable differences. Where national health care is concerned, though, the United States is the ONLY developed nation that doesn't guarantee its citizens access to basic health care. At the same time, though, there are estimates (like this from Bloomberg) that the US will spend 20% of its GDP on health care by the year 2018.
Why? From my reading -- and I'm no expert -- I think there is one reason we are in this crisis.
The reason is that insurance companies have complete control over who gets care and who is paid for receiving care. Insurance companies have monetized and profitized our very lives -- if you need a kidney transplant, you have to call a bureaucrat at the home office and convince him that it's going to save the corporation some money. If you have leukemia -- and I'm sorry for using strong language -- go fuck yourself. No private insurance company will cover you -- you have to apply for Medicaid.
Insurance companies, some of the most profitable companies in America, make money when they insure the healthy, and lose money when they insure people who need significant amounts of health care. In this situation, they have chosen to ensure mainly the young and healthy, and have put great energy into denying the insurance claims of the sick. It's good business -- why would you insure a person you knew would get ill, and cost you money? Why wouldn't you try to reject them from your corporate program?
But we all get ill. We all need health care. Healthy twenty-year olds turn into very sick eighty-year olds. The most profitable attitude for an insurance company is to insure the twenty year old and reject the eighty-year old. Insurance companies have a lot of methods and justifications for doing this -- they are all unfair, and many are illegal. My blog hopes to shed some light on regular people's stories, and show why insurance companies are bad managers of our nation's health and well-being.
Anyway, I've talked too long. I hope you learn something from my blog, and I hope it makes you willing to talk to your senator and your representative. We can pass significant health care reform -- we have a President who wants it, and a Congress that generally prefers a public option. All we need is the strength of American citizens, demanding that ALL OF US deserve medical care.
My name is Nick, and I've been reading about health care reform pretty intensely over the last couple of months. I care about it because many of my friends have been uninsured for periods ranging from weeks to years. For reasons that will hopefully become very clear, I believe America and Americans need a public option for health care, and I don't intend to be particularly considerate of opposing views. In situations concerning abortion, drug arrests, euthanasia, welfare, or HUD, liberals and conservatives have real and reasonable differences. Where national health care is concerned, though, the United States is the ONLY developed nation that doesn't guarantee its citizens access to basic health care. At the same time, though, there are estimates (like this from Bloomberg) that the US will spend 20% of its GDP on health care by the year 2018.
Why? From my reading -- and I'm no expert -- I think there is one reason we are in this crisis.
The reason is that insurance companies have complete control over who gets care and who is paid for receiving care. Insurance companies have monetized and profitized our very lives -- if you need a kidney transplant, you have to call a bureaucrat at the home office and convince him that it's going to save the corporation some money. If you have leukemia -- and I'm sorry for using strong language -- go fuck yourself. No private insurance company will cover you -- you have to apply for Medicaid.
Insurance companies, some of the most profitable companies in America, make money when they insure the healthy, and lose money when they insure people who need significant amounts of health care. In this situation, they have chosen to ensure mainly the young and healthy, and have put great energy into denying the insurance claims of the sick. It's good business -- why would you insure a person you knew would get ill, and cost you money? Why wouldn't you try to reject them from your corporate program?
But we all get ill. We all need health care. Healthy twenty-year olds turn into very sick eighty-year olds. The most profitable attitude for an insurance company is to insure the twenty year old and reject the eighty-year old. Insurance companies have a lot of methods and justifications for doing this -- they are all unfair, and many are illegal. My blog hopes to shed some light on regular people's stories, and show why insurance companies are bad managers of our nation's health and well-being.
Anyway, I've talked too long. I hope you learn something from my blog, and I hope it makes you willing to talk to your senator and your representative. We can pass significant health care reform -- we have a President who wants it, and a Congress that generally prefers a public option. All we need is the strength of American citizens, demanding that ALL OF US deserve medical care.
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